The Parenting
By Sioph W. Leal
What’s worse than bringing parents together so everyone can meet all at once? A haunted house! Young couple Rohan (Nik Dodani) and Josh (Brandon Flynn) rent out a house for a weekend getaway to introduce their parents, but it does not go to plan. Traditional Sharon (Edie Falco) and Frank (Brian Cox) clash with Josh from the get-go and meeting laid back Liddy (Lisa Kudrow) and Cliff (Dean Norris) certainly doesn’t help. As tensions rise in the group, its quickly discovered they are trapped in their rental, and it’s haunted by a 400-year-old poltergeist. The couple’s best friend Sara (Vivian Bang) and property manager Brenda (Parker Posey) are now help when things go from bad to worse when the poltergeist possesses one of the parents! It’s up to the couple, their friend and remaining family members to stop the evil entity once and for all but they’ve got to overcome the discord between them first.
Right From the start it perfectly captures the comedy-horror with an opening scene to the poltergeist’s introduction in the 80s to fast forward to the present day with couple Rohan and Josh on their way to the house for their weekend vacation. It’s a short scene but gives enough to get the dynamic and set up the eventual problems that will come to the surface as the families meet for the first time. A haunted house is, obviously, not ideal but the absurd horror of it and with an eccentric Brenda merge perfectly with the comedy in a situation that is hilarious, ridiculous and over the top with the horror parts that all work great together. The movie never tries to be scary and instead leans more into its comedic side, using the horror parts as opportunities to create more humour and it works great.
Even when the movie uses more conventional horror moments, there’s still an underlying funny element to it which carries throughout. There are moments of possession, of jump scares, violent outbursts and animals turning into demons. They all know they’re probably going to die or unleash an unstoppable evil on the world if they can’t destroy it but there’s never really any urgency which compliments the movie. It never leans into serious moments and that works perfectly.
The cast blend well together with different humour styles that match the roles and create plenty of drama and moments of comedy. The leading couple can, at times, be lost in the family drama but that seems to be the point given the situation and that their characters are overwhelmed with the parents more than they are the haunting.
Camp horror-comedies can be a hard line to tread but The Parenting does an excellent job and is funny throughout the entire film. Just when things start to get a little stale, Parker Posey’s eccentric character comes in to save it with her perilous antics and rapport with the other cast. It’s fun, unserious and a hilarious time. Everything about it makes for an absurd time in the best of ways with a cast that bounces off each other well for their comedic roles.